I am in CA, my realtor just gave up on me. She says that $500 is too low? Here what she says:
Hi Ricky,
As your realtor, I'd like to advise you that we will not get anywhere with any of our offers if we only give $500 earnest money deposit, for the following reasons:
1. The seller/bank will not put their property off the market for 17-21 days ( to give you time to do your home investigation and/or get your loan approval) for a mere $500 compensation to them should you decide not to get the property or should your loan not get approved.